Pollies squabble over NBN

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 13 May 2009 11:54

IT Industry - Market

Federal Broadband Minister Stephen Conroy has slammed an Opposition ultimatum threatening to block the National Broadband Network (NBN) as "grossly irresponsible" and "hypocritical". Meanwhile, his Opposition counterpart has tagged the NBN as a "white elephant".

According to Conroy, the Liberal Party is refusing to debate the NBN legislation until commercially confidential information is released by the Government.

The Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy said that material was submitted to the Panel of Experts in strict confidence, and therefore should not be released.

"The Government cannot and will not comply with this irresponsible ultimatum," he said.

Conroy branded the behaviour of his shadow, Liberal Senator Nick Minchin, as "grossly irresponsible. Furthermore it is hypocritical."

That was a reference to the way the previous Government (with Minchin as Finance Minister) did not release equivalent information relating to the sales of Telstra, Medibank Private or ComLand and Defence Housing Authority.

"The Opposition continues to seek to opportunistically delay the rollout of high-speed broadband to support Australia's future businesses and services, despite endorsing investment in economic infrastructure," said Conroy.

Minchin described the NBN as potentially "the biggest white elephant in this nation's history".

"The Budget also provided no detail or clarity in relation to NBN debt and funding arrangements despite promises of an imminent roll-out, confirming the suspicions of many that Labor is simply making this up as it goes along," he added.